13:9 Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"

13:10 Jesus said to him,"Someone who has bathed only needs to have their feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you."13:11 For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said,"You are not all clean."

Today's Lesson

As Jesus washes
the feet of His disciples, there is an incident that is recorded
between Jesus and Simon Peter. Peter is commonly displayed as the
disciple most willing to venture information, the most brash and
outspoken. He seems to be a natural leader among the inner circle. He
often shows insight that comes from God, but just as often he is shown
saying something impetuous and misguided. Today's Scripture falls into
the later category.

Peter begins by
questioning why the Lord is washing their feet. "Lord, do you wash my
feet?" It did not seem appropriate to Peter that Jesus should be
washing the feet of the disciples. As we noted last week, such activity
was normally assigned to the person with the least status. It should be
noted that none of the disciples, including Peter, offered to take over
the task from Jesus. They did not feel it was appropriate for Jesus,
nor did they desire to take His place in this work.

The response
that Jesus makes to Peter's question appears very mild. "You don't know
what I am doing now, but you will understand later." This statement
could be made to almost everything that occurred during the earthly
ministry of Jesus. His disciples rarely understood what He was trying
to accomplish. They would not understand, for the most part, until
after His death and only then because of the influence of the Holy
Spirit.

Peter's response
was impetuous and brash. "You will never wash my feet!" (Here's a
little hint that we can all take from this lesson. It's never a good
idea to tell God "You will never do such and such." Especially in the
face of His obvious desire to do just the thing that we demand that He
not do!)

The response of
Jesus is measured even though Peter has overstepped his bounds. "If I
don't wash you, you have no part with me." Jesus does not rebuke
Peter's outburst. He simply tells him the consequences of such
foolishness. And Simon Peter, in a complete reversal and with equal
brashness proclaims, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hand and my
head!"

Peter's heart
was right; it was only that he was not listening very well at first.
Once again, like many of us, he thought he knew what Jesus was trying
to accomplish. He made an assumption that was obviously wrong. But, to
his credit, once Jesus confronted him, Peter was willing to change.

Jesus ends this
passage with another reference to His betrayal. "Someone who has bathed
only needs to have their feet washed, but is completely clean. You are
clean, but not all of you." Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him. And
yet He was willing, for the sake of the example He was showing them, to
wash Judas' feet as well.

Even when we
have been cleansed, we are still dependent on Jesus. Jesus serves those
who are His own. He is constantly in prayer for us, constantly
assisting us, constantly strengthening us. We are never independent of
our Lord and Savior. Are we willing to allow Him to wash our feet? Are
we willing to allow Him to help us in our need?